This project builds on the work of a previous Honours student who published his results in the high-profile journal Nature Physics.

Deep physical insights have come from studying ratios of measured quantities that take universal values, which depend on only fundamental constants. Examples of universal ratios include the Wiedemann-Franz, Sommerfeld-Wilson, Kadowaki-Woods and Korringa ratios. Materials that violate these laws have provided particular insight into, non-Fermi liquids, strong electronic correlations, and magnetic fluctuations.

In this project you will investigate the deep connection between these ratios are the fluctuation-dissipation theorem (one of the most fundamental results in physics, which is deeply connected to the second law of thermodynamics). To achieve this you will need to develop a deep knowledge of quantum many-body theory and its cousin quantum field theory.